Flashback 2014: Top Defence tragedies that stunned India

Bengaluru, Dec 11: India's defence body is considered one of the biggest in the world, but it had a testing time this year proving its strength this year. While MiG has been giving constant headaches to the defence body, there were others too that sent shock waves across the world. Good number of submarines, and that too high-end ones went down and down went India's pride and money.

Submarines

January 2014: INS Betwa (F39), built in India was a Brahmaputra-class guided missile frigate. It ran aground and collided with an unidentified object while approaching the Mumbai naval base. The reason behind the collision was a cracked sonar system that led to faulty readings and an ingress of saltwater into sensitive equipment.

February 2014: On 26 February, in a major naval tragedy, INS Sindhuratna (S59), a Kilo-class submarine, had a fire detected on board when trials were being conducted which resulted in smoke leading to suffocation and death of two officers.

Seven sailors were reported injured and were airlifted to the naval base hospital in Mumbai. According to the naval board of inquiry, the fire was caused due to problems in the cables of the vessel. This particular incident led to the resignation of Chief of Naval Staff (CNS) Admiral D K Joshi on 26 February 2014, who owned moral responsibility for the incidents in the past few months.

March 2014: In a similar accident, INS Kolkata detected a malfunction on board, which led to a toxic gas leak, killing Commander Kuntal Wadhwa instantly. It seems that the ship suffered malfunction in its carbon dioxide unit while undergoing machinery trials, leading to gas leakage. Since the ship was not commissioned at the time of the incident, the enquiry into the mishap will be done by Mazagon Dock Limited, where the ship was constructed.

November 2014: A Torpedo Recovery Vessel of the Astravahini class (A-73) sank 30 NM off the Vizag coast. This happened during a routine mission to recover torpedoes fired by fleet ships. The accidentled to the tragic death of one sailor while four others were reported as missing. However, 23 other personnel were rescued by SAR teams deployed right after the incident.

Air Force

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle worth 80 crore crashes in Gujarat: A Heron UAV used for surveillance in an area close to Bhuj crashed.

MiG-21 Crashes in Jammu and Kashmir, Pilot Dead: Crashed in Bijbehara area of Anantnag district in Kashmir, the jet took down the pilot with it. According to the eyewitness, the pilot steered the vehicle so that it does not hit a populated area.

Air Force's new C-130J aircraft crashes near Gwalior, five killed: Air Force's newest member, also considered the sturdiest, crashed with all the five people onboard. It came down while on a routine training mission. It was bought from the US in 2011 at Rs 6000 crore.